Trust
by Hellen Lou
Summary: She told him he would be the last man she ever trust... but in the end he would be the only man left to save them. Now completed.
1. Trust

Trust

She said he was the last man in the world she would ever trust. Now he was the only one left to save her.

* * *

_three years earlier............._

_The rain whipped and lashed at the window pane, the wind howled loudly drowning out the sound of sirens and honks of the world outside the building. _

_The blonde shook only with rage and refused to acknowledge that smirk on his face that the very thought that she was alone with him shook her more then the rage ever would. _

"_Trust Miss Sullivan is a very hard thing to come about in the real world. However the word trust is bounded around with such ease it makes it all ironic doesn't it" the smirk and the air of confidence had been bred in to him. _

_She wanted to laugh that even in the womb he probably was this self confident. _

"_I would love to point out that from a man like it's rather funny you can even say the word" she snapped causing that smirk to grow, his chin dip slightly as though he agreed with her. _

"_But you won't" he offered as she clenched her fists and forced herself to count to five before letting out a shaky breath. _

"_Because your definition of trust and mine are two different things" she snapped and he chuckled before digging his hands into his pockets. _

"_I would have to disagree; maybe back in Smallville it might have but now, in the real world" he tilted his head to stare at her while she swallowed and forced back the whimper. _

"_In the real world we both know trust works both ways; you trust someone and they trust you. Anything is just a copy… a mockery of what that word means" he admits stepping closer forcing her backwards. _

_It was their dance and they would be damned if they hadn't perfected it. _

"_Then I guess you're trying really hard to find trust" she snipped proud that she could hit low without fearing he would hurt her. Because she was protected… no. _

_Because she would be saved… no. _

_Because he had hurt her in ways no else could have… yes. _

"_Just like you" he pointed out narrowing his eyes with each word. _

"_Miss Sullivan trust me when I say I'm trying to help you here; you've already made so many enemies" he stated and she had to laugh now. _

_She laughed at the thought of trusting him or that he wanted to help her, either way it was funny to her. _

"_I believed you before Mr. Luthor but like any girl I learnt to grow up and know that I could never trust you" she spat as her words stiffened his spine and harden his face. _

"_I warned you" "I didn't need you to warn me… I don't need you to ever speak to me again" she ordered and he smirked before strolling past her. _

_His stride perfect and calm even when she flinched away from him and the evil she knew to be within him. _

"_Trust Miss Sullivan you are going to need my help again; when you do please remember what I said about the real meaning of trust" he stated as he stood by the door watching as that emotionless mask drifted back over her youthful face. _

"_You're the last man I would ever trust Mr. Luthor… and when the day comes you understand please remember the real meaning of rot in hell" she imparted as though simply reminding him it was raining out side. With one last smirk he turned and left her to her world.

* * *

_

Three years later…

The rain slithered down his window pane with patterns and connections that on a good day he would piece together and map out before the next drop hit the wind.

The howl of the wind blocked out the approach of the car but it could not stop the sound of his door opening nor her sharp intake of breath when she saw the devil he had become.

"Miss Sullivan" he greeted turning to stare at the blonde woman who had once upon a time reminded of the innocence of youth he never truly had.

Now she reminded him that the world was harsh, unjust and draining. The bags under her eyes and the jerky reflex that she attempted to hide but not to those who understood you could never stop moving lest you get hit.

"Mr Luthor" she greeted in that same cold manner she had done so upon their last meeting, proving that he was nothing more threatening then some stray dog.

"I was under the impression that you had parted ways with the Daily Planet and had yet to find a new job" he said smoothly as she nodded, the bright eyes always looking for the new story was now looking for exits, weapons and threats.

"Then it's not a interview your after; what is it that you want Miss Sullivan" he questioned slowly not missing each and every emotion playing across her soft face.

"Your help" she told him with no hint of embarrassment, fear nor hope.

"If I remember correctly I would be the _last _man you would trust let alone want help from" he reminded with a smirk which fell the moment she returned no irk, no irritation.

"You are the last man I trust with _my_ life and it isn't me I want you to help" she admitted licking her dry lips. He didn't miss the way her hand darted to her concealed stomach nor the way that her face relaxed for the briefest of moments when she smoothed the material of her shirt over the small swell of her stomach.

"I trust you with _his _life and he needs your help" she declared meeting his cool gaze with one that had been honed from years of staring one demon or another in the face.

"What is in it for me Miss Sullivan" he demanded not willing to let his interest show nor his fear at having something as innocent as a child rely on his help.

Even if it was her child.

"Your father" she replied so bluntly and so serious that he held his chuckle back for only a second, but it soon died on his lips when he didn't see the response he expected in her face.

"My father is dead Miss Sullivan, now if that is it I'm sure one of your _friends _will help you with your child" he wanted to scream and hurt her but the words flowed from his lips coolly and without emotion ever attached to them.

"What Luthor male knew when to just stay dead" she questioned and it made him pause, made him reconsider.

Lionel Luthor died… he was sure, he saw the blood and he saw the body being carried away. Lionel's money however had bought the autopsy and it was Lionel's money not his that bride them to let him watch as the coffin holding his father's body was burnt.

Lionel's money and his power not Lex's and now it returned to be his worst nightmare.

"Five months ago I got sick and was sent to a specialist; one I didn't know was once on the payroll of Lionel. Two months ago, after I discovered who the doctor was I had the weirdest dream about him. I thought it was just that a nightmare because your father was there" she said softly as though the words would bring the walls tumbling down.

With a dry tight smile Chloe tilted her head to the side lowering her larger then life eyes to the ground.

"I did several tests… and if they didn't convince me I was pregnant then this surly did" she muttered retrieving a phone from her pocket and tossing it onto the desk as though she knew he would never take it from her hands.

Eyeing the object for several moments he lifted it, it was another several moments before he scrolled through the menu and selected voicemail.

"Put it on speaker phone" she asked softly now running her hands over her stomach while her eyes focused on some past ghost.

Not even acknowledging her he set about listening to the message before allowing the speaker phone blare to life in the ever smaller room.

........'_Miss Sullivan. _

_How very nice to be able to speak to you again… more like having you fear me once more._

_Don't fear about one thing though your years spent in Smallville has not given you the power to talk to the dead and even if that was so I would not waste what energy I had to contact you from the grave. _

_No I'm very much alive and I assure you it isn't for the pure reason I like hearing my own voice alone that I'm calling you. _

_You must have wondered why a doctor who had been on my payroll suddenly popped up in your life and then suddenly your dreams have no doubt taken a more stranger twist then usual. _

_From the several pregnancy tests you bought you must know by now that they weren't dreams; I didn't want you to completely forgot your night tests. _

_You are no doubt questioning why I haven't kidnapped you instead of telling you all this; for two reasons. _

_First knowing you so well Miss Sullivan I know that you would never rid yourself of such an innocent creature that is now growing inside of you. It does wonders to the ego when you know people then they know themselves. _

For a full minute silence cascaded on them, engulfing them in their own world of lies and threats.

'_secondly Miss Sullivan I know my son would never willingly allow anything happen to his unborn son; even to spit me he would still protect his unborn child. Of course there is no way for you to clear that little matter up you should know me well enough by now that it wouldn't be beyond me to do such a thing._

_Until I deem fit to speak to you again take care of my grandson'._

She didn't need to look at him to know he was torn between shock and haterage, she had stood there with the same expression for several hours.

"You can't expect me to believe that is my child your carrying even after that message" he demanded ready for any indigent reply she had waiting for him. Instead he found a wry smile and an emotionless mask.

"I know 99% for sure that every word he ever said or says is a lie" she admits and he can't help the smirk.

"And that 1% miss Sullivan" he has to ask, has to claw back some semi balance of their relationship.

A jerk of her head and of her lips she stares him head on, hand clutching her stomach proving even by 1% it was still her child.

"Reasonable doubt… every word he ever said or says might be a lie but he was right I do know him and he likes to surprise people at the eleventh hour" she admits and that dry chuckle does nothing to lower her arms.

"How will you give me my father Miss Sullivan if I choose to help you" he questions in the tone of a business man he learned long ago to embrace and follow.

"Help _my _son Mr Luthor… your helping him not me; and your father what ever his plans are revolve around my child being born" she declared both knowing the heavy use of 'my' was a way to put in their minds what this all meant.

She didn't trust him.

He wasn't going to be a father.

"You were wrong; I'm not the last man for you to trust" he muses though not his father he was still a Luthor and a Luthor was never wrong.

"I didn't make myself clear… I wasn't wrong; I don't trust you… not with my life but I do trust you with his life. I don't care what happens to me after my son is born, I don't want your help in sparing my life Mr. Luthor. He needs your help in sparing his" she stated that emotionless mask in place.

"Trust… it's a funny little thing isn't it Miss Sullivan" he muses already accepting the fact that in the end he never could help her.

He lost that trust when he left her.

* * *

This may have a follow I'm not too sure right now.


	2. Genetics

Genetics

* * *

Uncertainty washed over them, coursing through their veins threatening to drown them.

"You wanted this" his cold and emotionless voice caused her to jerk and half tear herself away from him.

What right did he have to judge her now; after everything he had put her through and allowed his father to do with her what right did he have to judge her nerves and need to think everything through.

"I'm not backing out now; I have every right to because this is your _doctor _and I shouldn't trust you" she spat wishing that the coffee table could offer more distance between them but she had come this far; asked this much for him.

Not for her but for the child she swore to protect even from the man who helped bring this child to her life.

"Shouldn't" was he simple reply; his dry smirk and confidence never wavering even as her world threatened to crumble under the pressure of the lies, secrets and evil trapping her.

"Mr. Luthor" a stern, cold and clinical voice called forcing them to remember the deal.

The only reason she would ever turn to him again could only be made clear so many times before everyone understood.

She was making a deal with one devil to escape another.

It was how the real world worked.

"This is the woman I was speaking to you about" with out a greeting the pact was sealed.

They needed the truth to plan the next move; she needed him to plan for her because all she could plan was how to bring her son into the world.

Even if that world would never hold her again.

"Miss Sullivan" with two words the feeling of being trapped forced her to swallow and snake her hand across her stomach.

In the end even the devil could be an angel when an innocent life was at risk.

"How does this work" she had to demand refusing to move forward into the room without knowing how damage she was going to exit.

"It will be like you are submerged in the memory; you will tell us everything you see and feel. It will be like talking in your sleep" the doctor assured with a displacement that brought no relief to her.

She wasn't a subject but in the end she wasn't a person to either of them anymore.

She was a means to an end.

Lionel Luthor's end.

* * *

Two Months earlier…

The coldness was tangible, it close in so close that it made it harder to breath. But then again that was made harder by the feeling of weakness washing away even the slightest of movement her brain was screaming through out her.

"_Sir… she's ready"_ who she wanted to scream and even question, who was ready and who was this man.

The bitter taste made her want to gag but the weakness robed her even of that movement. Out of place with everything, disoriented without the calming tick of time passing days may have passed in the space of seconds.

"_And; did you follow my directions" _that voice alone would stop her dead, why she couldn't remember through the clear fog.

She wanted to see him, wanted to mark his face among her nightmare because she couldn't believe it was a nightmare until he was there.

"_Yes sir! But still I don't understand why; it would lead to few complications if she didn't remember" _there was no concern for her, who ever she was but rather concern for what she could provide and what her presence meant to this world.

"_Then it must be a relief that I'm not paying you to understand"_ the confidence oozing from that voice made the skin she could barely feel squirm and flinch on it's own accord.

Only one man made her feel like this but her waking mind always promised, always soothed her to believe he was dead.

Pressure caused her eyes to snap to the needle being withdrawn from her arm, the scream wanting to erupt twisted and threatened to choke her when it lodged itself in her throat.

Why, why her; why was she there seeing and hearing but having no control. Why did her tears sting and burn her eyes as they demanded their push for freedom.

"_Miss Sullivan, such a position to find yourself in" _was he trying to be soothing or was her fogged mind just clasping at straws to stop her heart from failing all together.

She wanted to scream a name, to demand the presence of one man who could help her but the fog grew denser around that one name.

"_You won't remember; it will prick and prod at your waking mind but you will not remember but you understand now what I tell you" _she wanted to wrench her body away from his body, wanted to make her self so small that not even he could find her.

But even her own body betrayed her; just like everyone else who abandoned her once they out grew her.

"_Genetics Miss Sullivan; tempting as it may be to hurt you again it wasn't because of your nosy nature that you found yourself here but rather genetics"_ as though explaining the sun disappearing and reappearing she found his words washing over her.

She was eager to hear the reason but she was just as eager to have him fade away in to darkness as she dragged her self back to the waking world.

"_Breeding has always been something I've understood to be of great importance; I did love Lex's mother but if she came from less… desirable genetics I would have quickly found someone else to provide me with an heir" _the tears dripped so loudly on the steel table, the urge to throw up churned and twisted her stomach but was given no reprieve.

"_Smallville was affected; I knew that the moment I sent Lex there, he reported everything back to me without even knowing that he was nothing more then just a pawn to me" _she should feel sorry for this Lex, allow sympathy to course through her because he was just as much a victim here as she was.

"_But despite the high rate of incidents no one was suitable for this; your young friend Miss Lang almost took your place here but sadly Lex proved that despite the name he was never going to be a true Luthor at heart. But you… such promise and you want to think it all slipped away but I never forgot you" _the urge to throw up was now only second to the urge to snap her legs close as the pressure increased enough for to whimper somewhere deep in her throat.

"_Your abilities were late in showing but they were there. Lex was affected and it showed but you were too stubborn I believe"_ the sigh and the relief of the pressure was enough for her to allow the tears to escape without caring about the burning.

"_Genetics; it isn't your true genetics that I want but rather what you've gained from your years in Smallville. However yours alone would not be enough that is why I needed someone with a dormant meteor infection to complete this unique child" _focusing on the pressure now on her stomach as his hand caressed her flat stomach awaiting some joyous occasion was enough for the slightest jerk of her body.

"_And this child will be unique; as my grandson he will be a force to be reckoned with" _the scream that had been begging for release erupted in her mind as the pressure between her legs hit blinding heights and darkness engulfed her vision.

* * *

Two Months later…

The scream came first before she doubled over to empty what small contents of her stomach was left. She didn't care that they watched her movements nor how they stepped back when she proved she was more then just a test subject.

She was a human begin who had been thrust from one nightmare to another one.

"I want the copies" his dry voice brought another round vomiting, another round of shaking and fear.

"There is" "I want all of the copies of this night now" he didn't ask… she knew he would always demand.

She knew why she couldn't feel sorry for him, because as much as his father used him… he had used his father and many more people.

"Yes sir" even detachment wasn't beyond the reach of a Luthor.

What threat had he shown the doctor by a look, by a quite word she would never know and she was pleased to know she really didn't want to know.

"I will need to work with her further if you want more memories" the doctor ever so skilled proved no problem from shifting from fearful to fearing.

She could never be sure he wasn't the one applying pressure to her and she would never be sure ever again because as she was lead out of the office ever careful to keep her presence away from his she knew why that bodyguard was going into the room she had just exited.

She didn't need to know by his look that the silent gunshot would never be heard, she didn't need to know that once more she had put her trust in him.

All she needed to know was that he understood that the blood shed, the blood of those who would come to play some part in this would not stain the hands of her son.

Blood of the guilty and the innocent would stain her hands and never her son.

It was her choice to trust him with her son's life, she could only hope he would one day understand this.

It was after all genetics and hers though stained and damaged would at least offer her son enough to know his mother loved him enough to trust a devil.

* * *

It was questioned as to why Lionely would choose Chloe and Lex to provide him a grandchild... well here is the reason why.


	3. Sins

Sins

* * *

They all had sins, cast at them the moment they entered the world of that she was sure.

The only problem with that was that no one would acknowledge that, no one would ever accept that a child, an innocent soul could be tainted before it even opened it's eyes to a world ill equipped to deal with it.

She should know better then anyone that her sins had been cast in stone before she even took her first breath.

Her sin was being the daughter neither one of her parents could ever possibly care for; not their fault.

His sin was being the son that could never be loved the way he was meant to.

His stigma was the name she refused to give to him and his pain upon knowing he would never have the right to a father.

They should be all her sins and the father's sins but he would hold his share of sins not because she deemed it fit but because that was how the world work.

She ignored the hopeful look of the nurse as she handed the bundle to him rather then her; the nurse was just one of those people who choose to ignore that this child was already damaged.

He would never change and having a creature so dependant on one person alone thrust into his arms would not change that.

She should have protested the moment he told her the plan, he would never give her the rest her body demanded after hours of bringing her son into a world where she might not exist in hours to come, but she couldn't.

Her sin of pride… of determination would push her to become someone who her son could never be proud of.

"I want you out of my life and his the moment the body is cold" she imparts as he freezes at her door, they both knew her part was more then just watching from the sidelines.

She may trust him to protect her son but she would never trust him to bring peace to her life, she could never trust him to take on that last sin that would seal her fate in hell.

"Trust me Miss Sullivan I have no problem sending you on your way along with your bastard son" he admits and she can take some comfort in the fact that his place in hell will be far worse then hers.

"There's that word once more Mr. Luthor… _trust_… you still haven't figured it out yet have you" she spat.

His sin was his mother's silent anger at knowing he would never hold the genetics of someone she could have loved.

All he could do was smirk before disappearing and allowing her to picture the hell that awaited her.

* * *

Three hours earlier….

To appease the nurse they sat huddled together as though they were the picture that was demanded of anyone who entered this room.

That picture was shattered the moment the door closed and she was left alone to hold the child of genetics instead of love.

She wished she could promise her son a life where he could dream about his mother loving the man who helped create him. Promise him a life where he could be happy to acknowledge his father for the man he was.

But she couldn't and she would never pollute her son with lies.

"You understand what you are doing… what is to happen" he demanded detached from the scene before him just like she knew he would.

"Yes" she replied filling the small fist at her breast with her index finger, so small and yet so tainted.

"Can I ask one thing… the only thing I will ever ask of you now or ever again" she asked with enough hope in her voice to let him know that he would break her heart if he refused.

She didn't care if he did or not but she wanted to at least give him one more sin before she possibly left this world.

"What" he demanded already bored by the conversation after all he _had_ held up his side of the deal, her son was resting in her arms for now.

"Give me two hours, just two hours to hold him and pretend that all this could be normal… we could be normal" she whispered never looking away… you didn't look away from your goal.

She gave him power only because she needed him to have the power.

Either way she would get what she wanted.

"Fine" she didn't watch his departure, didn't listen for his commands that her room be guarded because now she could pretend.

She was that dreamer who wasn't stained with sins.

In this world she was just as innocent as the babe in her arms should have been.

* * *

Three hours later…

For all the emotions she should have felt being calm and serene was not among them. Happy, scared, insane or even angry should have been there but they vanished the moment she understood what she had to do.

The gun felt cool and heavy in her hands.

His shadow lurked like any good monsters should have done.

The silence was broken only by the click of his heels, the sharp intake of his breath and the click of the safety.

"Miss Sullivan your making a mistake" even in the shadow of death he was confident just like she knew he would be.

"My grandson is special; he could be more… _you _could be more. With my help nothing would stop either of you" he promised and in that moment he was not a man nor a monster.

He was empty of anything human and just filled with sins.

The second before his death he would still sin.

"Lionel," she pauses unsure how to play this in a way that was deemed fit for Lionel Luthor.

In the end she figured that even after everything they had been through; after everything that had been done to her it would have to be _anti-climatic. _

"I know what your more could be…I know what your special means and trust me when I tell you he will never know anything of that" she promises with no emotion left.

"Trust, Miss Sullivan is a weakness, something that I thought you would have grown out of by now" he admits, disappointment lacing each word.

She smiles at this, it would never be a smile of the girl she once was but the woman she had to become for her son.

The smile of a sinner.

"Your wrong… I'm no longer weak Lionel; I stopped being that the moment I had to sin for you" she declares allowing one tear to leak from her eye.

One more sin… another one for the collection. She would shed a tear for Lionel Luthor because no else would.

"When I had to sin for him" she whispers before the words caressed her finger and forced her muscles to do what was needed.

The blood stained more then the floor, the thud dulled by the roar of his groan still deafened her. Her fingers refused to drop the gun, refused to see or hear anything that would stop her from pulling the trigger again and again.

"You think this is the end Miss Sullivan" he chokes and she wishes she could indulge him one last time, do one last thing to ease her sins but she can't.

They were her sins and they were apart of her.

"I _know _Lionel" she admits kneeling beside him not fearing the blood seeping to her knees.

"I moulded my son into my image… what I am, what I was lives in on in him" he promises staining her pale face with his blood.

Whatever his dimming eyes was searching for in her face was lost the moment she smirked at him and allowed her mask to slip, allowed him to see what she had become.

"you moulded me as well… you made this way. What ever you did lives on in me" she whispers one last time before she stands, a sinner in the company of sinners.

"finish it" her devil ordered and she knows that she could do this one last thing for him, she could take this one last sin for him.

What spark had once lived in him, in all of them died the moment she pulled the trigger one last time. The jerk of his head and body, the thud of his head against the floor might as well have been the sound of shattering glass.

They stood with that disorienting feeling with no tick of the clock, time passing with hours replacing seconds.

She let him take the gun from her hand, she let him touch her this once because she was done. She was damaged that even his touch wouldn't break her anymore.

"Live your life Miss Sullivan, take care of your son and never look over your shoulder" he ordered in the cold detached tone that she knew was his and his alone. Staring up at him with those wide eyes she couldn't help but feel for the first time since meeting they were really seeing each other for who they really was.

Chloe Sullivan and Lex Luthor.

They were equals.

They were both stained.

They had both sinned.

"I should say thank you but after what you've done to me I would never mean it" she admits before he smirks at her and nods.

"And I would never accept it" he admits slipping back into what they had become.

He turns back to his fate, to his sin now and pulls the cell phone from his pocket ready to clear up this one last mess his father had created.

"Am I still the last man you would ever trust Miss Sullivan" he questioned holding her gaze as she breaks her promise to never look back.

"And the last man I ever want to see again or know" she declares truthfully before he nods once more, assured that they both knew where the other stood.

Though both stained and both sinners one of them would always have more sins then the other.

"Goodbye Chloe" he declares and she looks away, looks towards the future she could have now she was stained.

"Goodbye Lex" she whispers but knows it was to the ghosts they had laid to rest because he would never care nor accept her goodbyes.

She no longer existed to him.

She was just one more sin to add to his collection.

He was just one more stain to add to her hands.


	4. Courage

Courage

Full circle

* * *

Courage didn't take thinking, it didn't take trusting someone and it sure in hell didn't need to be something only superheroes could muster.

There was no more courage for her anymore.

After six years of finding the courage to look in to Alex's grey blue eyes everyday trying to be the mother he should have had.

After six years she knew that her need for courage was coming to an end.

Because she was.

She knew the moment she linked the result of having Alex in her arms and the fact that Lionel had tested her, used her, she was more damaged then she could ever imagined.

Courage wasn't always about what was truly right but what you thought was right and for her that had to be enough.

There was several people she could ask this of without the need for courage but this was only one person that she needed the courage to ask.

Standing there in the lair of the devil she knew that courage and it's timing really sucked.

"Never look over your shoulder Miss Sullivan; words I thought you would have adhered too so easily when it came to me" his smirk was empty just like his threats.

He was no longer the man she knew and she was no longer the woman he knew.

Courage stripped her of all she knew.

"I haven't and I never will again Mr. Luthor" the quip, the retort was drained of it's heat just like her hate for him and her distrust for her own life.

It had been so simple to believe he would be the last man she could ever trust with anything when she had nothing.

Now she had something to lose, something to leave behind and he had become the one man who she could only trust.

"So this what, looking forward to ensure your son's future as the bastard son of a Luthor" he questioned with more hurt then she had ever heard from him.

"Yes" she replies watching the smirk of confidence grow across his face.

"You once asked me if I understood the real meaning of trust… I understand the meaning, but only the trust we have" she admits and he watches proving he was interested in what she had to say.

Trust had lead them to deserve that genetics was more important then anything else and it was their sins that had created the one person she had enough courage for to ask the last man she could ever trust to do something for her.

They had come full circle, it would have made her laugh if it hadn't been so final.

"You Lex Luthor are the only man in this world that I hate and fear then anyone else including your father. He never once tried to prove to be something else, he was always the devil and I made my pact when I first understood that I couldn't let him carry on with what he was doing" the truth after so many years of hiding it behind the courage to do what was right, courage to be the person that was good and caring washed away everything that made her who she once was.

"You are the last man I would ever trust with my life…" the pause reflected that they both understood how this had to end.

She wasn't the hero, she wasn't superman and he was never going to be stopped by anyone like her. She dreamt that one day she would be the strongest person to take him down but with the reality of the world, the unjust and unfair world laying on her shoulders she knew her part to play in this had been over for more then ten years now.

This was her curtain call and she had the courage to accept, to take her bow and let the true players finish the story that had been mapped out for them so many years ago.

"I guess that was smart considering how very little life I was given" she couldn't cry because he didn't need or want her tears. She didn't need his pity or help.

"I guess it was Miss Sullivan; no one encounters my father nor any Luthor and could hope to remain untouched" he admits in that detached tone that was never reserved for her alone.

* * *

Three weeks earlier…

She wouldn't acknowledge the flinch as the doctor sat down across from her, his heavy wooden desk providing him with a barrier to say the words that stopped her from being a human.

This time it was different, this time she knew she had never left to give for any Luthor to care.

"Miss Sullivan" he tries to comfort her, tries to sound as though he cared enough about her but she didn't have the strength to care nor feel wounded that he would lie to her.

"How long" she questioned instead causing him to flinch now, unsure how to carry on with someone so detached and so cold.

She had the Luthor's to thank for that both Lionel and Lex.

She hadn't lied when she told Lionel he had moulded her too.

"Miss Sullivan?"

"To live" she clarified knowing that it had been for nothing, her courage to prove to her son that he was more to her was for nothing because she couldn't even assure him she would be around.

"I don't want you to think like that" "I really couldn't care; Doctor Granger I have done too many things in my life to think that this illness wouldn't claim me. I know what my exposure to meteor rock would do to me in the long run I just need to know if I have days, weeks, months or years before I kiss my son goodbye" she demanded forcing herself to meet his eyes.

Forcing herself to have the courage to meet this head on by herself without crying out for someone to save her.

"Two months… if we had spotted this earlier, some how been able to test your months ago we might have lengthened the time or even stopped the cancer from spreading this far" his empty promises wasn't because he knew he was lying but because in his ignorance he didn't know that it would never have changed anything.

* * *

Three weeks later…

Nothing prepared either of them when she finally said out loud the words that not even courage could tackle.

"I'm dying and nothing will change that… but that doesn't mean Alex has to suffer" he doesn't flinch at the name. She had courage enough to name her son that because she wanted to remind herself every time she fell that little more in love with him that his genetics meant more.

"I could never give him everything we both know that and now I can't even give him a year of my time" she wants to laugh that bitter laugh but it hurts too much.

Full circle and courage had taken that last spark from her, though small it had been there ever since the day she promised to never look over her shoulder.

"What do you want from me" he questions weighting the pros and cons, searching for the one thing that would make this deal worth his time.

She had known that giving him his father was enough; now she didn't know if handing her son over would be enough.

"Make sure he grows up; you don't need to love him just care enough to make sure he sees enough of the world to know what I gave up, what I did for him" she wouldn't plead.

In the moments they stared at each other, one with more to lose then the other they were once again seeing each other for what they were.

Chloe Sullivan the courageous sinful mother.

Lex Luthor the detached sinful devil.

"He'll have the best of everything" it wasn't a promise to her because this wasn't about making her feel better, it was about what he could do for himself.

With a nod she knows no more has to be said even if there was something more to be said.

"I'm sorry Chloe" the words were lies and the tone a mockery of what sympathy he was trying to evoke.

But she had the courage to sin one last time.

"I trust you to take care of him" she whispers watching the understanding that neither one of them would ever mean the words but comforted that they were willing to try.

"And Lex I promise to spit at your father in hell for you" she tries the smiles and finds that it means just as little as their words.

But because he has the courage to accept it she has the courage to wear it until she walked out of the penthouse.

Haterage had led her to be hunted.

Genetics had led them to become allies.

Sins had led them to be the only two people to make those hard efforts to do what was right.

Courage had led her to trust him with something more important to her then her own life.

Courage couldn't have come at a worst time.

* * *


End file.
